The Bugs Bunny Show
The Bugs Bunny Show is a long-running American television anthology series hosted by Bugs Bunny, that was mainly composed of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros.. Because Warner Bros. did not have the copyrights to their pre-1948 cartoons (their copyrights, but not their original negatives, were sold to Associated Artists Productions in 1956), the show only could air cartoons released between "You Were Never Duckier" and "Injun Trouble". Despite the black and white cartoons (excluding the 1931-33 Merrie Melodies, except "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!") being back in Warner's ownership by 1969, they were never shown. The show originally debuted as a primetime half-hour program on ABC in 1960, featuring three theatrical Warner Bros. cartoons with new linking sequences produced by the Warner Bros. Cartoons staff. After three seasons, The Bugs Bunny Show moved to Saturday mornings, where it remained in one format or another for nearly four decades. The show's title and length changed regularly over the years, as did the network: both ABC and CBS broadcast versions of The Bugs Bunny Show, as did Canadian network CBC Television (1969-1975) and local Canadian stations via syndication (1975-early 1980s). In 2000, the series, by then known as The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, was canceled after the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies libraries became the exclusive property of the Cartoon Network family of cable TV networks. Unlike The Porky Pig Show or The Road Runner Show, not every episode featured a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Broadcast and Format History Prime Time The original Bugs Bunny Show debuted on ABC prime time on October 11, 1960, airing on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM EST, under the sponsorship of General Foods (Post cereals, Tang, etc.). Newly produced linking segments were done for each episode by the Warner Bros. animation staff. Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng produced, directed, and created the storyboards for the earliest of these, with Robert McKimson later taking over the direction while Jones and Freleng continued producing and writing. Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: Plume/Penguin Books. Pg. 274–275. The wraparounds were produced in color, although the original broadcasts of the show were in black-and-white. The show's theme song was "This Is It", written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston ("Overture/curtain, lights/this is it/the night of nights..."). The opening title sequence, animated by Freleng unit animator Gerry Chiniquy, McCorry, Kevin (2007). "The Bugs Bunny Show Page." Retrieved May 17, 2017. features Bugs and Daffy Duck performing the song in unison. For the final chorus, a lineup of Looney Tunes characters joins Bugs and Daffy onstage (Porky Pig, however, is absent from the procession). The Bugs Bunny Show proved beneficial to the Warner Bros. staff, as it allowed the studio to remain open despite the shrinking market for theatrical animated shorts. Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age. New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 562. ISBN 0-19-516729-5. The final first-run episode of the original Bugs Bunny Show aired on August 7, 1962, The Bugs Bunny Show: A Tale of Two Kitties – TV.com and the Warner Bros. animation studio closed the following spring. Saturday Mornings, 1962 – 1985 ABC began re-running The Bugs Bunny Show on Saturday mornings in August 1962. The series was rerun in color beginning in 1965, and remained on ABC until September 1968. At this point, the series switched to CBS, where it was combined with The Road Runner Show (which had aired on CBS since 1966) to create The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. McCorry, Kevin (2007). "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour Page." Retrieved May 17, 2017. The standard Bugs Bunny Show opening and the announcer's introduction of Bugs Bunny ("that Oscar winning rabbit!") were directly followed by the rabbit's saying, "...and also starring my fast feathered friend, the Road Runner", after which The Road Runner Show's theme was played. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour combined re-edited bridging sequences from both shows to link the seven cartoons featured in each episode. The bridging sequences would be edited further in later versions of the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. Beck, Jerry and Will Friedwald, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, Henry Holt, 1989 In 1971, The Road Runner Show moved to ABC, and a reconstituted half-hour Bugs Bunny Show aired on CBS, featuring re-edited versions of the bridging sequences and a different grouping of cartoons. In 1973, The Bugs Bunny Show returned to ABC for two seasons, only for CBS to re-acquire both shows and bring back The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour in 1975. In 1976, Sylvester and Tweety were featured in their own Sylvester and Tweety show for one year, necessitating the removal of most of the Tweety and/or Sylvester cartoons on Bugs Bunny/Road Runner that season. Also that year, a weekly half-hour prime-time edition of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show briefly aired on CBS' Tuesday night schedule from April through June. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour became The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show in 1978 after CBS added another half-hour to the runtime. In 1981, a companion Sylvester & Tweety, Daffy, and Speedy Show was added to the CBS schedule, which included a number of later cartoons produced by a reestablished Warner Bros. Cartoons studio from 1967 to 1969. The following year, this new companion series was canceled, and its cartoons were incorporated into the The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, which was broadcast as two separate hour-long programs on Saturday mornings. In 1983, CBS returned the show to 90 minutes, the bridging sequences were dropped, and the show's opening titles were re-animated. The following year, the "This Is It" opening was jettisoned altogether; a new title sequence (created from clips of the cartoons) and new theme song (It's Cartoon Gold), composed by Steve Zuckerman with lyrics by John Klawitter, introduced the show. Final Years, 1985 – 2000 CBS gave up the rights to broadcast the Warner Bros. cartoons following the 1984–85 season, and as a result, the show moved back to ABC, where it became The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour. Cartoons featuring Tweety or Speedy Gonzales were not broadcast on ABC during the 1985–86 season. The following year, however, Tweety cartoons were added to the program, which was reduced to a half-hour and renamed The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. McCorry, Kevin (2007). "The Bugs Bunny/Tweety Show Page." Retrieved May 17, 2017. Beginning with its third season, The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show was expanded to a full hour, and the original "This Is It" theme was reintroduced, accompanied by a newly animated introductory sequence. Another version of the "This Is It" opening sequence was done in 1992. Though the program did not qualify for the educational/informational designation, it nonetheless remained on Saturday mornings after the new designation debuted in 1996, one of the few non-E/I programs to survive the rules changes. The program was often paired with ABC's in-house Schoolhouse Rock! shorts during this time. The hour-long Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show remained on the air until 1999, when it was again reduced to a half-hour. In 2000, Warner Bros. made the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film library exclusive to Cartoon Network, as it, along with parent Warner Bros., is owned by WarnerMedia. As a result, The Bugs Bunny Show ended its four-decade-long network run, one of the longest runs in the history of United States network television. List of Formats * The Bugs Bunny Show, October 11, 1960 – September 8, 1968 (ABC) ** (in color starting September 10, 1966) * The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, September 14, 1968 – September 4, 1971 (CBS) * The Bugs Bunny Show, September 11, 1971 – September 1, 1973 (CBS) * The Bugs Bunny Show, September 8, 1973 - August 30, 1975 (ABC) * The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, September 6, 1975 – November 12, 1977 (CBS) * The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, November 19, 1977 – September 7, 1985 (CBS) * The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour, September 7, 1985 – September 6, 1986 (ABC) * The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, September 13, 1986 – September 2, 2000 (ABC) Episodes See The Bugs Bunny Show Episodes Legacy This show is credited for keeping the Warner Bros. cartoons made during the Golden Age of American animation a part of the American consciousness. Indeed, the show ran for more than four decades, and helped inspire animators, comedians, historians, and others who watched Saturday morning television.[http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv "Looney Tunes on Television", a website dedicated to the Looney Tunes television broadcast history, and maintained by Kevin McCorry and Jon Cooke.] The "This Is It" song's fame is such that it has been used elsewhere such as in the Canadian province of Ontario where it was used in a TV commercial promoting the various performing arts tourist attractions where artists of various disciplines sing separate lines of the song. When Warner Bros. released its video series Golden Jubilee, featuring the classic cartoons, the opening sequence shows the Tasmanian Devil maniacally riding a motorcycle down a city street, chased by a police car. He makes a sharp turn into a theater, where the rest of the Looney Tunes are performing to the Bugs Bunny Show tune. Title sequences and some linking material from the original Bugs Bunny Show are included as bonus features on each volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD collection. As the original color negatives were cut up by CBS and ABC to create later versions of the show, the linking sequences are presented on DVD using a combination of footage from both what's left of the color negatives (some of which were used in later incarnations, thus helping to preserve them) and the black-and-white ABC broadcast prints prepared in the early 1960s. However, there is one rather unimpeachable voice who says that the shows do exist in complete form. Jerry Beck (who has done extensive research in the Warner Bros. cartoons) states that copies of the show are not lost; in fact, black-and-white negatives of all episodes are in the possession of Warner Bros. (and color negatives may exist in Europe). http://www.cartoonresearch.com/questions.html, which discusses the preservation of "The Bugs Bunny Show" He has been instrumental in the release of bridging material on the Golden Collection DVD's. For reasons unknown however, Warner Bros. is withholding the episodes for the time being; the decision to restore the series and release to the public entirely rests on them. Availability Episode 22 has been released on Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960's Volume 2. Censorship ABC and CBS heavily cut their cartoons in these Bugs Bunny Show incarnations, often for content. The majority of edits are done to remove violence that goes beyond normal slapstick, scenes featuring racially and ethnically insensitive caricatures (mostly Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, and African-Americans, though ABC cut the end of the Sylvester and Tweety short "Trip for Tat" because it had Sylvester speaking in a faux Italian accent and eating spaghetti), and any scene containing dangerous, imitable behavior (often cigarette smoking, alcoholic drinking, fooling around with electricity, ingesting dangerous chemicals, any scenes involving suicidal actions, running into busy streets, and getting locked or trapped in appliances or trunks, to name a few examples). ABC also cut out scenes from Looney Tunes cartoons that were not only violent or considered racially insensitive, but also may be offensive to those with speech impediments (the "A thousand a-ble-a-ble bucks" gag on "Dog Collared") or mental illness (cf. the "Fruitcake Sanitarium" sight gag on "Hare Brush" and Daffy thinking the possessed Melissa Duck is a schizophrenic, calling her "Sybil", and asking her if she can conjure up her "older sister" personality as seen on "The Duxorcist"). In both cases, the edits done to these cartoons often caused plotholes or ruined jokes by cutting either the set-up, the punchline, or both. These Bugs Bunny Show incarnations are known to edit out the original opening and closing credits of all the cartoons aired, presumably because they did not have have the rights to show them with their original credits intact at all. Consequently cartoons with gags that involve the credits sequence (such as "Stop, Look and Hasten", "Box Office Bunny", "Whoa, Be-Gone!") have these opening/ending gags cut. Videos The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour (1968) CBS Bugs Bunny Road Runner show open 1979|1979 opening 1980 Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show Part Three Intro Road Runner Theme From 1980 Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show CBS Title Cards Bugs & Tweety ABC Title Cards Bugs & Tweety ABC Title Cards - Volume 2 The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show Intro (1990's) - High Quality|1990s opening The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show End Credits|Closing credits to The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show Title Cards Lt a haunting we will go the bugs bunny show.jpg|"A-Haunting We Will Go" Lt aqua duck the bugs bunny show.jpg|"Aqua Duck" lt assault and peppered the bugs bunny show.jpg|"Assault and Peppered" lt chaser on the rocks tbbs.jpg|"Chaser on the Rocks" Duck_Rabbit_Duck-BBRR_title.png|"Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" For_Scent-imental_Reasons-BBRR_title.png|For Scent-imental Reasons" lt freudy cat tbbs.jpg|"Freudy Cat" Hare-Way_to_the_Stars-BBRR_title.png|"Hare-Way to the Stars" lt iceman ducketh tbbs.jpg|"The Iceman Ducketh" lt mexican mouse piece title.jpg|"Mexican Mousepiece" lt muchos locos title.jpg|"Mucho Locos" lt out and out rout title.jpg|"Out and Out Rout" lt panchos hideaway title.jpg|"Pancho's Hideaway" lt prince varmint tbbs.jpg|"Prince Violent" lt rodent to stardom title.jpg|"Rodent to Stardom" Stop_Look_and_Hasten-BBRR_title.png|"Stop! Look! And Hasten!" The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season) Screenshot_20190904-085849.jpg|"Ain't She Tweet" Screenshot_20190904-090019.jpg|"All a Bir-r-r-d" lt apes of wrath tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Apes of Wrath" lt beanstalk bunny the bugs bunny & tweety show.jpg|"Beanstalk Bunny" lt beep prepared the bugs bunny & tweety show.jpg|"Beep Prepared" Screenshot_20190904-085713.jpg|"A Bird in a Bonnet" lt bugs bonnets tbbats.jpg|"Bugs' Bonnets" Screenshot_20190904-090141.jpg|"Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol" lt cannery woe tbbats.jpg|"Cannery Woe" lt cats and bruises tbbats.jpg|"Cats and Bruises" lt clippety clobbered tbbats.jpg|"Clippety Clobbered" Screenshot_20190903-072607.jpg|"Compressed Hare" lt corn on the cop tbbats.jpg|"Corn on the Cop" lt daffy's inn trouble tbbats.jpg|"Daffy's Inn Trouble" lt devil may hare tbbats.jpg|"Devil May Hare" lt dog pounded tbbats.jpg|"Dog Pounded" lt double or mutton tbbats.jpg|"Double or Mutton" lt fiesta fiasco tbbats.jpg|"Fiesta Fiasco" lt fish and slips tbbats.jpg|"Fish and Slips" Screenshot_20190904-085803.jpg|"A Fractured Leghorn" lt gee whiz tbbats.jpg|"Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z" lt going going gosh tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Going! Going! Gosh!" Screenshot_20190904-090248.jpg|"I Gopher You" lt hare trimmed tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Hare Trimmed" lt hasty hare tbbrrs fs.jpg|"The Hasty Hare" lt heaven scent tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Heaven Scent" lt home tweet home tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Home Tweet Home" lt hopalong casualty tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Hopalong Casualty" lt the jet cage tbbrrs fs.jpg|"The Jet Cage" lt lickety-splat tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Lickety-Splat" lt lighter than hare tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Lighter Than Hare" lt mad as a mars hare tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Mad as a Mars Hare" Lt a message to gracias the bugs bunny & tweety show.jpg|"A Message to Gracias" Screenshot_20190906-200736.jpg|"A Mouse Divided" lt muzzle tough tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Muzzle Tough" Screenshot_20190906-200858.jpg|"Person to Bunny" lt pikers peak tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Piker's Peak" Screenshot_20190903-072323.jpg|"A Pizza Tweety-Pie" Screenshot_20190903-085745.jpg|"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny" lt putty tat trouble tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Putty Tat Trouble" lt robot rabbit tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Robot Rabbit" lt run run sweet road runner tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" lt rushing roulette tbbrrs fs.jpg|"Rushing Roulette" Screenshot_20190903-071835.jpg|"Sahara Hare" lt shot and bothered tbbrrs.jpg|"Shot and Bothered" lt a street cat named sylvester the bugs bunny & tweety show.jpg|"A Street Cat Named Sylvester" Screenshot_20190904-085343.jpg|"Tweet and Lovely" The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show lt tbbats bird in a bonnet.jpg|"A Bird in a Bonnet" lt tbbats a bone for a bone.jpg|"A Bone for a Bone" Bnt891.jpg|"D' Fightin' Ones" lt tbbats feather bluster.jpg|"Feather Bluster" Screenshot_20191022-233839.jpg|"Feed the Kitty" lt tbbats fish and slips.jpg|"Fish and Slips" lt tbbats foxy by proxy.jpg|"Foxy by Proxy" lt tbbats guided muscle.jpg|"Guided Muscle" lt tbbats harried and hurried.jpg|"Hairied and Hurried" Lt tbbats the high and the flighty.jpg|"The High and the Flighty" lt tbbats the jet cage.jpg|"The Jet Cage" lt tbbats knighty knight bugs.jpg|"Knighty Knight Bugs" Screenshot_20190906-200131.jpg|"A Mouse Divided" lt tbbats napoleon bunny-part.jpg|"Napoleon Bunny-Part" lt tbbats oily hare.jpg|"Oily Hare" lt tbbats past perfumance.jpg|"Past Perfumance" lt tbbats rabbit rampage.jpg|"Rabbit Rampage" Screenshot_20191022-233645.jpg|"Tweet and Lovely" lt tbbats tweet dreams.jpg|"Tweet Dreams" lt tbbats the unexpected pest.jpg|"The Unexpected Pest" lt tbbats woolen under where.jpg|"Woolen Under Where" Screenshot_20191026-115453.jpg Screenshot_20191026-115647.jpg Screenshot_20191026-115755.jpg Screenshot_20191026-120006.jpg Screenshot_20191026-120138.jpg Screenshot_20191026-174731.jpg Screenshot_20191027-184527.jpg Screenshot_20191027-184624.jpg Screenshot_20191027-184729.jpg Screenshot_20191027-184813.jpg Screenshot 20191130-210651.jpg|Cat's Paw Screenshot_20191130-211132.jpg|Red Riding Hoodwinked International Broadcasts * It aired on Toggo from Super RTL in Germany. * In 1990, Nine Network Australia began airing their own Looney Tunes compilation show entitled The Bugs Bunny Show. It featured the same opening but instead of being "hosted" by Bugs Bunny, it was hosted by a human and had prize giveaways and interviews with celebrities. References Category:TV Shows Category:1960